


New Neighbors Pt. 1

by Jerbic



Category: El Goonish Shive
Genre: New Character - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-23
Updated: 2018-11-23
Packaged: 2019-08-28 08:51:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,736
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16720200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jerbic/pseuds/Jerbic
Summary: Judith Pompoms meets the new neighbor moving in across the street.





	New Neighbors Pt. 1

**Author's Note:**

> I've always found Ms Pompoms to be a sympathetic character and felt she needed a story of her own. In the absence of Dan naming her, I decided to name her Judith. The name seems to fit.  
> This is the first story dealing with Judith and Susan Pompoms and Scott McLeod  
> The chronological order for reading these is:  
> 1\. New Neighbors pt. 1.  
> 2\. New Neighbors pt. 2.  
> 3\. Lost and Found

1.  
Saturday was the day Judith Pompoms liked the most. She could lay in and sleep till about 8 o'clock. Especially now that school was out for summer and Susan wouldn't be starting her first year at Moperville Community College for several months.

She rolled over under the covers glanced at her clock. It read 6:39 am. “Great, she thought, as she turned back. Just a little while longer!”

Just as she closed her eyes and began to drift off, the sound of a heavy diesel engine began to force itself into her consciousness. It continued to get louder until Judith opened her eyes.

“There aren't supposed to be trucks that large driving through here,” she thought.  
She bolted out of bed and gazed out of the front facing window that allowed her to view the opposite side of the street. 

From three stories up she had a commanding view of the neighborhood, and right now she saw a large moving van pulling in front of the house just down and to the left of hers across the street. 

The house in question had been empty for about a year since the previous owners had moved out when the husband had been promoted and transferred.

The HOA for the Snootville Creek subdivision had been trying to buy the house so they could demolish it for “aesthetic reasons” but the owners refused to sell as the offered price was too low. 

It predated most of the homes in the subdivision so it was grandfathered in when the others were built. Like most developments, the HOA wanted the homes to conform to certain standards, otherwise, they felt the properties would be devalued. That was the case here.

The house was all on one level and clad in stone. The other houses were brick of different colors and were all multistory. It had a metal roof that had the black color embedded in the metal. The others were either slate or architecturally shingled.  
The empty lots on either side were overgrown with trees and underbrush.

“Well…Shit…” Judith said, to no one in particular. “Someone got them to sell”.

The moving van’s engine went silent. What wasn't silent was the rush of air as the air brakes were released. If she hadn't been awake before, she certainly would be now with a noise like that.

The door to the cab of the truck opened and the driver climbed out and jumped to the street. 

From her vantage point, Judith could see that he was tall, muscular, and wearing a tee shirt with some sort of logo on the back. 

His hair was close cut and silver colored, almost to the point of being white. As stated before, he was muscular, but not overly so. This was muscle not from a gym, but through hard work.

He walked to the back of the van and began to pull out metal ramps hidden in the bottom of the trailer. As they slid out they made a loud clattering sound, followed by a BANG as they settled into their grooves. This further irritated Judith. “Can't he wait for a more decent hour to do this?” she thought? “Some of us are still trying to sleep”, meaning herself if she had the choice. 

“Well, we'll see about this!” Judith Pompoms began to get dressed.

2.  
20 minutes earlier...  
The move was almost over. Twelve hours driving time from the DC area to Moperville had been exhausting. The man had started out at 4 pm Washington time and drove continuously, only stopping for meal and bathroom breaks.

Now it was almost over. He looked forward to being able to finally get into his house. It was good to get away from Washington.

His GPS attempted to take him into the Snootville Creek area by a way that would have had him entering on the wrong side of the street. He ignored the machine and its protestations. “Sometimes it's best to know how to read a map,” he thought to himself. Luckily the streets were wide and allowed him to navigate the turns without incident.

 

He pulled up to the curbing in front of, and just down from the house, so as to allow him room to unload. His was the only one on that side of the street. He had purchased the adjoining lots on each side so he could have his privacy. They would need clearing off, but he had plenty of time to do that. 

The way he had loaded the van, the number of possessions to be unloaded (which wasn't a lot), and the electronic moving jacks provided by the moving company would allow him to unload the truck himself.

He turned the engine off and released the break with a loud WHOOSH of air pressure. “Hope that didn't wake anybody up,” he thought.

He opened the cab door and jumped down, removed his driving gloves, and closed the cab. He walked to the back of the trailer and gazed at his house. “Home, sweet home,” he thought as he began to assemble the ramps. They fell into the grooves with a loud BANG. “That probably woke somebody up,” he thought.

The first order of business was to unload the vehicles in the compartment in the rear of the van. They were blocking everything else in. 

He slowly backed the SUV down the ramp onto the street. He then returned for the motorcycle. As he was walking it down the ramp he saw to his right a woman walking toward him from the nearest house across the street.

She was about 5’2”. Brown shoulder length hair, dressed in a bathrobe with pajamas showing below the hem, and not looking the least bit happy. 

“You’re beautiful when you are angry,” he thought about saying. She DID look attractive but decided not to pursue that line of conversation as she probably wouldn't think it as humorous as he did.

“Can't you do this at a more convenient time?!” the woman asked indignantly.

“You mean convenient for you?” he thought.

“Well...the noise ordinance for this neighborhood ended at 6 ma'am,” he said.

“Don't be impertinent!” she said, “and don't ma'am me!” I'm not some old lady to be condescended to.”

“No condescension was intended ma...uh...well, no condescension was intended.” Where I'm from, the term ‘ma'am is used to convey respect to the person it’s directed towards, regardless of age.”

“Where you are from doesn't interest me. People are trying to sleep and you’re waking them up.”

“Namely, you,” he thought. He then reconsidered this. “Maybe it's not such a good idea to piss the pretty neighbor off first thing,” he thought. He HAD been driving all night and probably needed to dial the attitude down a few notches. 

“Well”, the man said, looking at his watch. “It IS a little early, and I could wait about another hour to get started.” I'll go have breakfast and start with the unloading when I get back.” A little food might do wonders he reasoned.

“That would be greatly appreciated, thank you,” said Judith.

“My pleasure ma’am...uh sorry, it's a hard habit to break”. 

“That's quite alright sir,” Judith said, now feeling she may have gone a little overboard on this subject.

With that, the man closed and locked the doors to the moving van, got on the motorcycle, put on his helmet and rode off.

Judith was surprised with how well the conversation had gone for her. Even though she felt she had the “moral high ground” on this she had expected a lot more pushback from this man. Laborers usually are very task-oriented and don't like schedules being changed. They also don't tend to speak as refined this man had.

As she walked back to her house, Judith thought about her conversation with the man. She had gotten used to the idea over the years that men were not to be trusted, so she tended to unload with both barrels when confronted. BUT, aside from him pointing out the noise ordinance time, which actually WAS correct, he had avoided escalating the situation. His manner had been polite, modest, deferential even. She wasn't used to someone like that.

3.  
The man found an IHOW (International House of Waffles). He figured lunch would be some time away so he ordered steak, eggs, waffles, toast, and coffee. Lots of coffee. “I would kill to be able to eat like that,” the waitress said to him. “I plan to work it off today,” the man said.

He ate breakfast leisurely, paid the bill with a generous tip included, and left.  
The man rode around Moperville for a short period, specifically riding by the FBI building where he would be reporting to next week. “I'll meet everyone on Wednesday, I guess,” he thought as he drove away.

Judith returned to her home. As she entered the front door, Susan was coming down the stairs in her pajamas.  
“Mom, what was all that noise a little while ago?” she asked. “It sounded like a big truck.” 

“It was” Judith answered. “Someone is moving into the house across the street, but I told them it was too early to be making that ungodly noise so they will start moving their stuff in later.”

“Well, I have to get ready to work at the store this morning,” said Susan, “so I'm going to fix breakfast. You want eggs or cereal?”

After 8:00 the man returned to his house, parked his motorcycle, and opened the doors to the moving van.

He then opened the three garage doors, as well as the front door to the house. The power had been turned on several days before, so he turned on the ceiling lights in all the rooms so he could see

The refrigerator was on and stocked, as per his request by the realtor. The man checked the contents and was satisfied that he would not starve today. He could buy groceries later, once he had moved in

He returned to the truck and unloaded the electric moving jack. 

His furniture, boxes, and other possessions were all loaded on movable pallets. This would greatly cut down the manpower needed to move in. He had brought with him only the basic necessities of furniture. A chest of drawers for his clothes, a large desk for working at home, and a big sofa that he would sleep on for now. All the other furniture he had given to different charity organizations before the move. There were just too many memories associated with those. Especially the bed. He had decided to buy all new furniture once he got moved in. Nothing to remind him of Washington. 

He had carefully packed his computer in a separate container. He had built this himself, containing the latest and greatest of components. He also had packed his gun safe in a separate container. As heavy as it was, it needed to be.

As he unloaded the pallets, the man noticed a teenager walking down the walkway from the house the woman had come from earlier. She was about 17 or 18 he guessed, with long blue/black hair.  
She was about 5’9”, thin, but not too thin. She was wearing some sort of name tag but was too far away for him see the name on it. She gave a short wave to him, got in her car, and drove away. 

As he unloaded the van, the man set up a large portable Bluetooth speaker in the living room. He paired his smartphone with it and began playing music to help make the job not so tedious. His collection of mp3's was impressive. The man set the playlist to 70’s and 80’s classic rock and turned the volume up so he could hear it as he unloaded, but not so much as to be a nuisance to the neighborhood. 

Judith was sitting in her living room, which gave her a view of the happenings across the street. After Susan had left she fixed a cup of coffee and watched the activities. She saw the man using the pallet jack, enabling him to move the heavy contents with ease. “That answers one question she thought, but who bought the house, and why aren't they supervising the move?”

After a bit, she walked out onto her front stoop. She could hear music coming from the front door across the street. Blue Oyster Cult was playing “Don't Fear the Reaper.” All she could think of was “More Cowbell!” For some reason, Judith thought this was screamingly funny and started giggling as she stood there.

She started feeling a little guilty about earlier. “OK”, she thought, “let's try this again” as she started back across the street.

Just as she began crossing over, a black Escalade pulled in front of the house and a tall blond woman exited from the car. “Well hello, Judith” Beverly Ashland said. “Coming to meet your new neighbor?” Beverly was the realtor responsible for selling the house to the man, who came out of the front door while this conversation was taking place. “Hello, Ms. Ashland,” the man said.

“Please Scott, I've asked you to call me Beverly. Judith Pompoms, meet Scott McLeod, the newest addition to the neighborhood. Scott, this is Judith Pompoms, she lives here with her daughter Susan.”

Judith was taken aback by this introduction as she had thought he had been the mover, not the owner of the house. Nevertheless, she recovered quickly and offered her hand in greeting. Scott took her hand in his and shook it in return. “Pleased to meet you Ms. Pompoms,” he said. “ We briefly met this morning,” he said to Beverly, “but we really weren't properly introduced.” 

Judith recalled the events of this morning's meeting with some discomfort. “It ...was a little early,” she said.

“Indeed,” said Beverly questioningly. “Well, I came by to check and see if there was anything you needed with moving and to invite you to dinner tomorrow night as a welcome.”

“Tomorrow evening will be fine with me”. Scott said. “You pick the place as I don't know the area yet. I do like Italian though unless you have a preference”.

“Oh no, Italian will be great for me too. I can pick you up if you like” Beverly said.  
“Say around seven?”

“That will be great”, said Scott “I'll see you then”.

After Beverly had left, Judith turned to Scott and said “Well, it is nice meeting you Mr. McLeod”, and returned to her home.

Scott clandestinely watched her walk back to her home. “I think it's still too soon,” he thought. “But damn, she IS kinda cute!” With that, he went back to work.

4.  
Later that evening, after Susan had returned from work, she and her mother were sitting at the dinner table. 

“Did you get to meet the new neighbor after I left,” said Susan? 

“Just briefly until Beverly Ashland came,” Judith said. “She ended up inviting him to dinner tomorrow night.”

“Did he accept,” asked Susan?

“Yes, he did” replied her mother. “I guess that she must be doing what she said she was doing, welcoming him to the neighborhood.”

“It just seems that she has been going through a lot of men lately since her divorce” observed Susan.

“That’s really none of my business Susie,” said Judith, calling Susan by the childhood name she had given her.

“Besides, he wasn't wearing a wedding ring, so he must be either single or divorced too. Either way, it’s no concern of ours,” stressed Judith.

“You checked to see if he was wearing a wedding ring,” Susan asked rather incredulously? “That doesn't sound like you.”

“No Susan, I did NOT purposely look to see if he was married. You know how I have felt about men since the divorce. I don’t have the least bit of interest in that sort of thing,” stated Judith emphatically. “I just happened to look at his left hand while talking and saw he didn't have a ring on.”

“Uh huh,” said Susan, as skeptically as she could muster, trying to make fun of her mother.

“Oooh You!” said Judith, while throwing a dish towel playfully at her daughter.

“So when are YOU planning on starting to date,” asked her mother. 

“I think we may need to change the subject,” returned Susan.


End file.
